Best Game of Thrones episodes: the greatest GoT of all time

Game of Thrones was the show that proved rumours about the demise of watercooler TV were greatly exaggerated. Even in a world where streaming has made sure we can watch the shows we want, when we want them, HBO’s epic fantasy series remained the definition of appointment viewing.

Across eight seasons, the big-budget adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels featured bloody battles, political scheming, and plenty of memorable heroes and villains vying for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms. There were also dragons and evil ice zombies – what more could you want?

While the show ended its record-breaking, multi-award-winning run in 2019, there’s loads of good reasons for a re-(Night’s) watch. But before you get stuck into 73 episodes, ShortList has picked out 10 of Westeros’s best – don’t forget to vote for your favourites to help shape the list.

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Best Game of Thrones episodes

The battle for Winterfell in season eight’s ‘The Long Night’ is bigger, but loses points because it’s so dark you can’t see what’s going on. Besides, you’ll never watch a more brilliantly choreographed piece of screen warfare than this epic scrap between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton’s armies. It’s a relentless hour of questionable tactics (Jon Snow is as idiotic as he is heroic), extreme cruelty (Ramsay sending Rickon Stark on a doomed run for freedom), and an insane body count. But the best man wins in the end – and a vengeful Sansa leaving Ramsay to be devoured by his own hounds is incredibly cathartic.

This could just be the most important episode in Game of Thrones history. We’d already seen major characters bite the dust by the time season one reached its penultimate episode, but even the unexpected demises of King Robert Baratheon and Viserys Targaryen were no big deal next to this. Played by Sean Bean – by some distance the biggest name in the show – noble Ned Stark was supposed to be the hero, the guy who’d make sure everything was okay. But when King Joffrey ordered his beheading, it was a brutal way to learn that, in Westeros, nobody is safe. A true game-changer.

Arguably the most heartbreaking episode in the Game of Thrones canon – Ser Jorah Mormont saying a tearful farewell to Daenerys as he leaves to deal with his greyscale is just the half of it. Soon after learning that the White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest, Bran Stark, Meera and Hodor make a desperate escape from an army of Wights, before the horrifying truth about Hodor’s limited vocabulary is revealed. Thanks to a time-shifting, mind-warping vision, he’s lived his whole life with the phrase ‘Hold the door’ running around his head – a horrific, inescapable reminder that the gentle giant was always destined to die saving Bran.

The episode that forced Jon Snow actor Kit Harington to spend an entire year lying about his involvement in season six – even to many of his co-stars – the season five finale ended with Jon Snow betrayed and murdered by his Night’s Watch troops. We now know, of course, that his watch wasn’t really ended, but at the time bumping off the star of the show was nearly as shocking as his dad Ned’s death four years earlier. The episode also achieves the unlikely feat of making you feel sorry for the otherwise objectionable Cersei, forced to endure a naked walk of shame through the streets of King’s Landing.

As Game of Thrones got bigger and more battle-focused, it was easy to forget that the most captivating episodes in the early days were often the talkiest. ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ is wonderfully character-focused, a quiet prologue to the White Walkers’ imminent assault on Winterfell. Arya and Gendry get together, Theon earns redemption for his Stark betrayal in season two by vowing to protect Bran, and – in one of the show’s most beautiful moments – Jaime knights Brienne of Tarth. Okay, Jon Snow telling Daenerys they’re related is a bit awkward – Luke and Leia have nothing on those guys – but this is some much-needed calm before the storm.